From the Ashes and the Rubble
by IR Magi
Summary: femShep and Kaidan live through an alternate ending to Mass Effect 3 and discuss future plans.
1. Chapter 1

Admiral Hackett was saying something over the intercom. The Illusive Man lay vanquished nearby. David Anderson stood with Olivia Shepard by the Citadel's console. They had emerged from the darkened corridors, crossed the chasm, and dealt with the clearly indoctrinated Illusive Man all within a matter of minutes… but the fighting _still_ wasn't over.

"Shepard, the Crucible isn't doing anything," Admiral Hackett repeated. "It must be something on your end."

Snapping back into reality, Shepard turned to look at Anderson. She followed his gaze to the console in front of them. They were in a part of the Citadel they had never seen before, and so they fumbled helplessly over the controls. Something seemed to work, though. The panel flashed an array of different colors. The lights around them flickered. Something… initiated.

Outside, the Crucible let loose a large spherical wave of peaceful white energy. It was like a sunbeam breaking through the darkness of space. It passed over everything without harm, but when it touched the dark red energy that made up the protective shielding of the Reaper vessels; it turned the protective barrier into a solid, inert state. The shields then broke like glass around the menacing starships.

Admiral Hackett thought he knew what this meant.

"Continue to engage all Reaper vessels while we assess the effect of the Crucible," he said in his usual calm voice to what was left of Sword Fleet. But the evidence was already quite apparent. Reaper vessels were now being destroyed with the same ease as any other vessel of their size, but with one exception: unlike the other starships in the immediate vicinity, the Reaper vessels no longer had protection, not even in the form of something as simple as a kinetic barrier.

"Commander," EDI transmitted through the chatter of the war broadcast, "the Crucible appears to have nullified Reaper shielding. The affect is planet wide, but it does not appear to go much further beyond that. Reaper vessels are now in a full state of retreat. Earth has been reclaimed. I estimate our losses at 37%. Reaper losses are still mounting. Soft spots and structural weakness continue to be identified now that the shielding is no longer a concern. Current projections estimate Reaper losses will be at 40% by day's end."

"I'll take it," Commander Shepard replied simply.

Anderson was saying something to her about how they had "turned the tide of the war." Olivia couldn't focus on his words, though. Staggering backwards, her knees buckled and she collapsed. She had lost too much blood. Her body couldn't keep her brain properly perfused… and so she passed out.

When she came to, Olivia found herself lying on a hospital bed in a part of the Citadel she _did_ recognize: Huerta Memorial Hospital. An IV was attached to her arm, and a blood bag was dangling nearby. She could see her reflection in the glass window before her. Her raven black hair was tucked behind one of her ears. Except for a busted lower lip, her oval shaped face was largely unscathed.

A pair of doors on the other side of the room suddenly slid open. An older gentleman stepped inside.

"I see you're awake," the man said in greeting. He was a nurse. He approached the blood bag hanging from her IV pole and removed it. "Your body is quite good at replacing its fluids. Just need to keep you hydrated and the rest should take care of itself." He checked a second bag that was hanging not far away. This one was filled with a clear liquid. "You have a visitor, by the way. Kaidan Alenko. Want me to send him in?"

Olivia perked with interest. She tried to sit up in bed, but her stomach sent a shot of pain into her body. She quickly relaxed back into the hospital bed.

"Yeah," she grunted, "yeah, send him in."

The nurse parted from the room without saying another word. Moments later, Kaidan entered. He walked with a quickened gait to Olivia's bedside. Emotions of concern, warmth, and love resonated from his eyes. He took her hand.

"You're okay," he breathed.

"Kaidan," Olivia whispered in relief.

Reaching up with her free hand, she pulled him into a deep and passionate kiss. Her busted lip caused her to whimper once with pain, but she ignored the sting as she kissed him. Kaidan tried to pull away to see what had caused her to cry out, but Olivia wouldn't let him go. So he deepened the kiss. Easing into it further, he kissed her like he had in London. That kiss was a kiss she would never forget. It had been a desperate embrace… a final goodbye… Still, in comparison, this one was pretty good too. To her, this kiss was the culmination of all her hard work.

When their lips finally parted, a single blot of blood oozed forth onto Olivia's lower lip. Kaidan reached out with his hand and he touched it. She kissed his fingertips. Staring with rapture into his eyes, she was completely smitten by him. Everything she wanted in life was now in this room. Nothing was ever going to get in the way of their love again… nothing.

"I love you," Olivia whispered, a satisfied sigh escaping her lips as she spoke.

"I love you," Kaidan echoed. "Can you believe we did it? We saved Earth. _You_ saved Earth."

Olivia shook her head. "We won by 3%. After months of preparation, that's the best we could do?" She shifted her gaze past Kaidan. Disappointment flowed into her eyes.

Kaidan took her by the chin. He forced her attention back onto him. "Don't you short-change yourself," he said. "You accomplished something no one else could do. Without this victory today, the entire galaxy would have no hope—_none_."

Olivia offered him a kind smile. "Does this mean I can retire?"

Kaidan smirked. "I imagine you can do whatever you want to do after today."

Olivia reached out with her hand to stroke the side of Kaidan's face. "Well, in that case, do you know what I really want to do?" she queried. Kaidan shook his head. Olivia didn't immediately continue. She paused a moment to trace the side of his jawline with her fingertips. "I want to stop fighting," she eventually went on to say. "I want to start living… with you. After all we've been through Kaidan you're the only one I want. I know we've had our differences, and I know I'm not the same woman you first fell in love with, but we've grown closer through it all, and now that the Reapers are in check I can finally say something to you that I've been wanting to say for a very long time: I love you more than _anything_. I'm sorry I left you when I did… I'm sorry about Horizon and Cerebrus… But I'm not sorry when I say I'm done fighting. I'm done, Kaidan. Let someone else take over the reins now. I want a new path… I want to settle down with you… start a family… When I look at you I know you'd make an amazing father … I've felt this way for a while now… It's clouded my judgment on several missions… when I should have been thinking about the greater good; I was thinking about what would keep me alive so I could come back to you in one piece. I can't afford to think like that anymore… it's not fair to those who serve under my command…"

Kaidan paused to assess what all Olivia had said. After a minute, a smile perked up at the corner of his mouth.

"I've been thinking the same thing," he admitted. "Now that we can finally have this discussion, I want you to know I've been thinking the _exact_ same thing. I never thought you'd beat me to it, though. I always thought I'd have to strong arm you into settling down with me."

Olivia smirked and shook her head. "No, not at all," she confessed, "it's all I want. I want you so bad. I literally ache when I'm away from you now."

"Me too," Kaidan confessed. "Well, if this is what you really want, all I can say is… your place or mine?"

Olivia laughed lightly. "Do we even know if our childhood homes are still intact?"

Kaidan shook his head. Despite the seriousness of the conversation, he continued project only kindness and warmth to her. "No, we'll probably have a lot of cleaning up to do. But what better time to start our lives together then from the ashes and the rubble?"

Olivia nodded her head in agreement, and then she kissed his lips again.


	2. Chapter 2

_Your place or mine?_ Olivia knew the answer right away. For her, family on Earth had centered around an abusive vagabond of a father. She had taken up with a gang in order to compensate for her lack of a family nucleus. But instead of being promiscuous or doing drugs, Olivia actually turned her gang into something productive. They did food drives; made music; and helped out at the homeless shelter. About the worst thing they ever did was beat the neighborhood bully into a bloody pulp after he had raped an underage girl. It had been street justice, and it had felt good.

No, Olivia had had a plan early on in life: get into the military. There, the Alliance Military became her home. She enjoyed the structure, the discipline (both mental and physical), and the genetic augmentations were a nice perk. Some of her gang members followed her into the military, but she quickly passed them in rank and soon fell out of touch with them.

Truthfully, Olivia didn't care to look for her parents. Were they dead? Alive? Indoctrinated? A mindless husk? It didn't matter to her. A counselor had told her once her traumatic upbringing had left her emotionally stunted. Well, so be it. Her sometimes cold and calculating demeanor was easily melted by her immeasurable love for Kaidan. It was if all her life she had been saving her love for this one man, and now she was finally able to cash in her chips.

So, it was Vancouver.

When word had reached Admiral Hackett that the only two human Specters were bowing out of the fight, the uproar from the brass had been immediate and vehement. Still, they were Specters and they could do what they wanted with their lives. What really shocked everyone was when Olivia and Kaidan showed up in Vancouver. The citizens and the rag-tag resistance fighters came running to them in awe-struck bewilderment. They couldn't believe such amazing, renowned soldiers were coming to their aid. Yes, the Reaper vessels had retreated from the Sol system, but the husks were still largely in control of the major citizens. They were like zombies that had overrun the world.

Olivia and Kaidan hadn't planned on leading a counter-attack to reclaim Vancouver, but they resigned themselves to the task anyway. Once Vancouver had been properly secured and cleansed, they finally took the time to visit Kaidan's home. Through sheer luck, they found Kaidan's father resting safely and securely inside the establishment. His mother, of course, had died when he was younger during a plane crash.

"I wish I could meet your parents," Kaidan told Olivia as they approached his surprisingly picturesque home. It was a white two story house on several acres of open land. It had a wrap-around porch and was surrounded by a white fence that came to their waists. Olivia sighed when she heard Kaidan's words. Stopping at the fence, she laid her hand on one of the posts and frowned.

"You know I don't have much of an attachment to them," she said. "As far as I'm concerned, they're already gone."

"I know," Kaidan replied. He placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. "I'd just like to see where you came from, is all… see who you look more like—your Dad or your Mom."

Olivia offered him a warm smile. "Where I came from isn't important," she said. "But where we're going is. For all we know, this could be our future." Olivia's eyes shifted to the white house before them. For all intents and purposes, it looked as if it had gone untouched by the war.

Olivia took a deep breath.

"You nervous?" Kaidan questioned.

Olivia shrugged her shoulders. "A little," she replied. "I've never done anything like this before. It means a lot to me. I want your father to like me."

Kaidan stepped closer to Olivia. He took her by her slender waist and pulled her closer. "He'll love you," he confidentially told her. He then planted a kiss softly on her cheek.

"Thanks," Olivia said as a wave of warmth effervesced upwards throughout her entire body. God how she loved when he did something like that to her... Took control… reassured her… Olivia had forgotten what it felt like to _not_ be in command of a situation. It was a nice change of pace to have her guard down.

Kaidan saw what he had done to her. He grinned with satisfaction before leading her to the front door. Kaidan rapped his knuckled across the wooden entrance. Moments later, the door open and there stood Kaidan's father. Essentially, he was an older version of Kaidan. This seemed to hint that Kaidan would be the type of man who would get better looking with age, for Kaidan's father had hardly any wrinkles on his face. In fact, he looked a lot like Cary Grant.

"At last," Kaidan's father said with a grin. "Come in you two!"

Kaidan smiled and beckoned to his father. "Olivia, this is my father, Allen Alenko. Dad, this is Olivia Shepard."

Allen seemed to skip the introduction. "No seriously," he insisted, "come in you two. There's a pack of husks nearby."

Olivia raised her eyebrows with interest but quickly stepped inside. Kaidan followed closely behind. Allen locked the front door behind them and gestured for them to come with him. "This way," he said as he stepped from the front entrance and ascended the stairwell residing in the middle of the house. Once on the second floor, Allen took a seat in a leather chair that was facing one of the many windows on the floor. Attached to the window was a large sniper rifle.

Outside, walking in a pack, were 6 husks. They were at the tree line walking at the edge of the Alenko estate. Allen leaned over the large rifle and lined up his shot. Seconds later, he fired off five quick rounds. All 6 husks dropped lifelessly to the ground.

"Nice shot, Dad," Kaidan said after noticing the single headshot that took out two husks.

Allen patted the rifle appreciatively with his hand. "This thing has seen some action over the last few months," he admitted. "Now, are you two ready for dinner? Had to grow the ingredients myself. Most food stores ran out of food a week into the invasion."

Olivia and Kaidan settled into their seats downstairs. Allen poured them their soup and took his seat at the head of the table. After everyone had a few bites, he asked them the most obvious question: "when did you two know you liked each other?"

It was a topic they had never discussed before. Smiling tenderly at Kaidan, Olivia propped her elbow onto the table. She brought her head to a rest against her hand as she fixed her gaze on him and answered: "I had worked with Kaidan for a while, but the first time I felt my heart skip a beat for him was when we were on the Citadel. We were talking about mankind's place in the galaxy and he said something to the effect that there's no reason the Council wouldn't like humanity because of how beautiful I was. You see, I was scheduled to meet them for the first time that day. Those weren't his exact words, but… I got his meaning."

At this point, the electric charge building between the two of them was almost overwhelming to behold. At any moment, Allen feared they might rip each other's clothes off, push their bowls of soup to the floor, and start making love on the dinner table right in front of him.

"You know, I-I hear you two haven't had much time to yourselves since you got here. I need to check the perimeter. I'll be upstairs. The first floor is yours. The water's hot if you need a shower. Bedding is already made…"

Allen excused himself from the table without saying another word while Kaidan and Olivia continued to stare into each other's eyes. When they heard the upstairs door close shut, they did exactly as Allen had feared: Kaidan and Olivia shot to their feet and the space between them instantly disappeared. Their lips locked, and in a flurry of movement… they retreated to the nearest bedroom.


End file.
